The Road to Becoming a Service Dog

I am having this amazing experience with Roxi, an apricot Standard Poodle, on her way to becoming a service dog.

Teaching a dog basic obedience skills is fun for me. With both Norman and Vino, there was a time in the training process when things began to click...when the relationship between us became so deep that we both knew the other was thrilled at the progress. We could  read each other so clearly that I was reluctant to talk about it with other, less dog affected people for fear they would think me loony.

Training Roxi has reached that level of mutual understanding and we are both teaching each other new things every day. She's teaching me patience, subtleness and creativity. I am hopefully  teaching her to love learning.

I thought it would be great to share this journey with you. If nothing else, it will be good for me to reflect on the progress. My reports won't be nearly as deep as the beginning of this post...the stories are just too fun.

I've had Roxi about 5 months now. She's almost a year old. She is owned by a woman who used to be a trainer for Assistance Dogs of America, Inc., the organization I volunteer for. Tragically and ironically,  Roxi's owner was in a car accident a few years ago and now she herself is in a wheelchair. Hopefully, if all goes well, Roxi will assist her by picking up items off the floor, opening and closing cupboards and doors, fetching the phone and much more.

Roxi-roo, as I call her, knows all the basic obedience behaviors, such as Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Heel, Stand, Leave-it etc. She's not alway mature enough to control herself in all situations, but she will get there. She has all the temperament characteristics we look for. She's confident, friendly, loves people and food, LOVES to work and she likes to retrieve. There are very special things about her that make her excel. She never gets frustrated or quits. And she's always happy. Her tail is always wagging. The picture above isn't great, because it doesn't really capture her silliness. She looks very serious here, which is a result of her working gear. She knows when we're working and she becomes much more grown-up.

The funniest training story I have for Roxi goes like this. I was teaching her TUG. The goal is to get her to pull the drawer open using a rope tug that I tied onto the knob. We started with a large cupboard "drawer" that holds our wastebasket.

I started by removing the "rope" and playing a game of tug with her. Then I put it back on the drawer and clicked and treated her for just  showing interest in it. Pretty soon she was mouthing the tug, and then she finally gave a few easy semi-pulls which earned her a party! That was pretty good progress for the first session, I thought.

The next morning I let her out of her crate and she made a beeline for the kitchen and as soon as she saw me in front of the sink, she tugged open that drawer with such enthusiasm and purpose that I about fell over. It was a complete, full tug that opened the drawer all the way and almost pulled it off the tracks -- not a whimpy pull like the first session. Then she did a stately sit as if to say, "There! How's that for a pull? Now where's my treat?" I just cracked up. She must have dreamed about that lesson during the night!

Now, I have to ignore tugs unless I ask for them. She's pretty happy with that skill and sees it as a way to get food whenever she wants.

I have many more funny training stories to tell. Watch for new posts!

Comments

[Trisha]

How I miss working with those dogs! The exuberant tugging just has to be a poodle trait as that was Kirby's favorite as well... well, half poodle does count, right?

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